St Louis, Ellis lead as Bolts trounce Hurricane 5-1

Marty St Louis and Dan Ellis lead the Tampa Bay Lightning (19-10-4) to a convincing 5-1 victory against division rival Carolina Hurricanes (15-13-4) at the St Pete Times Forum Monday night.  For the Bolts it’s their 4^th win in a row and the team is 10-2-2 overall, has one of the best home records in the NHL this season.

St Louis scored the back breaking goal, as he ripped a forehand just inside the far post his  with one second left in the first period to give the Bolts a 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission.  For St Louis, he had a goal and two assists tonight which gives him 6 points the last two games.

Coach Boucher has felt that St Louis has taken on the brunt of the leadership role with his buddy Vinnie Lecavalier out along with Simon Gagne, but that you can see an ease in his own mind the last couple of games with them both back to share the pressure of leading this special group of guys.

Dan Ellis stopped 21 shots and only gave up a rather fluky goal to help pace the team against Carolina.  As the team really did not play very well defensively in the first period, Ellis kept the team in the game stopping 11 of the 12 shots he faced in the period.   It is three games in a row that the goal tenders for this team have played very solid in the midst of heavy scrutiny about their inconsistent play.

Goaltender Mike Smith was hurt today during the morning skate, as he collided with Simon Gagne.  The word from the team is that Smith hurt his knee, as he skated off the ice earlier today.   The team doctor will examined Smith and he has a minor knee injury that will keep him out two weeks.

In an unrelated move earlier in the day the team called up young goalie Cedirck Desjardins from Norfolk in the AHL.  They did this to get him some work with goalie coach Frantz Jean and to give him a little taste of being in the NHL.  It’s going to be up to Coach Boucher whether he sees the ice but depending on the injury to Smith he will be the backup.  Desjardins posted a 12-5-1 record with a 2.63 goals against down in Norfolk this season. 

Steven Stamkos continues to amaze as he netted his 100^th career goal tonight to make him the 6^th fastest to the figured in the history of the NHL, for him its 26^th goal of the season to tie Crosby for the league lead.

The Bolts scored the last four goals of the game to give them margin of victory which included goals from Dominic Moore and Brett Clark to go along with the goals from St Louis and Stamkos.

Vinnie Lecavalier set a career milestone in the game as he scored his 750^th career point in the NHL.